GRAPHIC MEANS: A HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN PRODUCTIONWHEN DESIGN WAS NOT DIGITAL

Graphic design, a practice named in 1922, has had enough time to evolve throughout history in a frantic way until today when design is more popular than ever, with thousands of students wanting to learn this discipline and numerous publications on the subject. It has become an important area of cultural production, research and experimentation but its history has been ignored until now and although it is easy to find bibliography on typography, for example, it is not so much to find books about how everything was before the arrival of the computer, that inseparable companion of any designer.

We interviewed Briar Levit, director of a documentary that aims to give visibility and voice to all those people who did design in the pre-digital era. As a teacher and design professional, she discovers collecting production manuals from the 60s to the 80s, how was that design she never knew since her education and professional work has always been through the screen of a computer. Aware that the younger generation knows even less, she has spent several years researching and documenting interviews based on well-known designers such as Ellen Lupton, Art Chantry and Ian Swift, as well as other leading figures from a fascinating moment in design history.

From the era of hot metal typesetting, going through the era of the cold type to our days: a walk through the process of production of graphic design when everything was done by hand with the help of analogical inventions. An exploration of the evolving methods, tools, and social roles that gave rise to the graphic design industry as we know it today.

“Graphic means” is not just a look at the past but a valuable graphic document for future generations worth knowing.

Tell us a little about yourself. Why are you so committed to documenting graphic design history?
Studying design history is fascinating on its own, but for practicing designers, it gives them a chance to see what went before them and why. The “why” is just as important as the “what”. Most of us know the broad strokes of our discipline’s history, but the cold type era is one that has been a sort of black hole in the knowledge of most designers who trained any time after the era took place. Graphic Means takes a look at how the technology of this brief period changed the course of design and the lives of people who practiced it.

How the idea of making a documentary first came to you and how long took you to make this project real?
While my first inclination was to simply bring the content into my college classroom or a book, I realized after sharing the idea with friends and colleagues that this was likely interesting to a lot more people than those outlets alone. I was lucky enough to have seen a great documentary made by a graphic designer, Doug Wilson called Linotype: In Search of the Eighth Wonder of the World. The film told the story of the one machine, but it did so with a great deal of heart and style. I thought, if he can do it, maybe I can too? He has been a mentor for me almost from the beginning, which was about 4 years ago,

I think this film is a helpful tool for graphic design teachers to make students understand the evolution of this ever-changing discipline. Have you thought of it as an educational tool for your classes?
Yes, this will absolutely be a tool in my design history class. I hope many other teachers will find a spot for it in their curriculum too!

After interviewing so many people, what have you discovered? Some funny stories? It was difficult to contact the right people?
It’s been wonderful to reach out to people I have long admired, and to learn about others based on the networks within the communities. The cast of the film if full of incredibly talented people. I suggest Googling any of the designers that you may not have been familiar with. You won’t be disappointed.

We see in the film that at a certain time of graphic design history in the US, experimental designers start to emerge in the West Coast, moving from the East Coast (New York) to the West (California). Do you think there is still a different approach or a Western or Eastern design style?
I do still think there are regional design styles. They are certainly less noticeable as the internet has erased a lot of those invisible barriers, and we can see work all the time, from all over the world on the internet.

As you have studied both in San Francisco and London, have you noticed Europe is so much concerned about the importance of Graphic Design as in the US?
Europe is absolutely just as concerned about the importance of graphic design as we are in the US. I always point to the design of packaging found in grocery stores in the UK (which is the part of Europe I’ve spent the most time in). There is a certain level of sophistication in British food package design—a simplicity and willingness not to “talk down” to the customer, that one sees less here in the US. My best guess for this is that Britain still seems to be driven by a semi-Modernist approach to design and typography specifically. In the US, while we had a brief period in which the International Typographic Style took the design world by storm, we are driven by a more commercial, and/or flamboyant approach to things like food packaging.

Something that I admire from your film is that not only allows us to know more about graphic design production and history but also to understand the essential role of women in graphic design and how they entered the labour market. I have seen lately some interesting projects like the blog Women of graphic design or the Project Help Make Design History Inclusive from Natalia Ilyin, that are taking seriously the question of gender equality in design education. Do you think Graphic Means takes part of this necessary new approaches to Design history?It’s important for us to see ourselves in the history of our discipline. In the same way that we relate to stories in books and on film that feature people that look like us and who we relate to, the same can be said of history. We (women) have been there all along, but the stories were covered up for a long time. People who are interested in learning more about women designers can check out the book Women in Graphic Design 1890–2012, or for quicker reads, check out the Hall of Femmes book series.

You have selected a women crew to make your documentary as the percentage of women working in the film industry is still very low. The same happens in graphic design industry now?
I wouldn’t say there are fewer women working in the graphic design industry by any means, but I have seen various figures that point out that women are not in as many top-level positions as often as men are, and they aren’t recognized for their work in terms of awards and invitations to speak at established/respected events. I see things improving though, and I hope this continues. One way it’s changing is that women are establishing spaces for themselves to progress. I see a wave of studios that were started by women, and that are unabashed about their support of women in their studio structure.

The eternal debate of man versus machine is present in your documentary; some designers like Lucille Tenazas seems to miss the cold type era while others like Ellen Lupton embraces the advantages of the use of computers in design production. What’s your conclusion about this dichotomy?
I’m very much a lover of digital design technology. I often wonder if I would have made it as a designer if I didn’t have a desktop computer to learn on. That said, I can absolutely see what Tenazas is saying when she asks “isn’t it good if it’s made with your body?”. There is a certain feeling when you finish something that you created with your physical skills that is hard to match with printing out of a digital printer. Ultimately, I think the best work combines the two—whether it’s sketching your ideas out by hand so you don’t get distracted by the whistles and bells of your design software, or whether you are drawing pictures or letters by hand, scanning them in, and developing them further digitally. There will always be a place for handmade work in our discipline.

We are having a revival of hot metal type, with many young graphic designers rescuing old letterpress machines from printers and making some quality design works. We have not seen a revival of the cold type era. Maybe is less known or less attractive than the previous one or maybe is too soon to be considered something worth recovering?
Even if it was worth recovering, it just isn’t possible. The papers and chemicals necessary aren’t in production anymore. The number of machines out there is few and far between as well. Unlike the mechanical machines of the Industrial Revolution, the type machines of the 60s and 70s were mostly trashed, and if they weren’t, their electronics are beyond resuscitation.

What have you learned doing this documentary?
There are so many graphic design stories to tell, and designers across all the micro-specialties of our industry are incredibly curious hear them.

What about the promotion of the film? Have you had some feedback from the spectators?
Not really. Promotion has been only online through Kickstarter, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Do you imagine yourself working as a paste-up expert or photo typesetter?
In as much that I would do paste-up as a graphic designer, but I don’t think I would have wanted to do only paste-up production all day, every day. The beauty of being a graphic designer is that you get to do research, ideation, and then make something out of that work. I like the variety of it, and the fact that I’m working various parts of my brain and body.

After this trip to the past in design history, what is going to be the future of graphic design now that is changing so fast even in the computer era?
That’s the million-dollar question, and not one, I’m really qualified to answer. I’ve heard some say that augmented reality is the new uncharted territory that has tons of potential, which seems possible to me, with the success of things like the “Pokemon Go” game.

Are you planning to continue working in some more graphic design related projects? Any other new projects?
Right now, I’m finally able to work on a book to accompany the film. There was a lot that just couldn’t fit into the film, so a book will allow me to get into more details from the oddball typesetting machines that existed, to the social stories that will fill out an understanding of the life of designers, typesetters, and production artists of the Cold Type Era even more.